Curious [Not] to Know

Would you ever prefer not to know? Here are a few examples: Do you want to plan your life and retirement correctly? How many of you would be willing to know your day of death in order to plan accordingly? Among individuals at high risk for Huntington's disease, only 3% to 25% choose to undergo (nearly perfect) genetic testing to identify carriers of the gene [1]. Similarly, up to 55% of people who decide to get tested for HIV do not return to check their results [2]. When East Germany ceased to exist, people were allowed to look into the Stasi files (the secret police) to see who had informed on them, a process that sometimes ended in heartbreaking outcomes [3]. Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, a frequent visitor to East Germany, refused to find out which of his friends and colleagues had spied on him [4].

Knowledge is power, and ignorance can come at a heavy cost to both individuals and groups. So how does it happen that a person or a group chooses to "not know" (deliberate ignorance)? Why do they refrain from using information (or knowledge) or even seeking it out at all? Thanks to Ralf Hertwig and Christoph Engel [5], here are a few reasons:

Emotional Regulation and Avoidance of Regret - People can manipulate their beliefs by selectively choosing sources of information while completely ignoring other sources [6]. For example, fear can trigger avoidance of health information that might disrupt an existing situation. Similarly, avoidance due to jealousy can explain why employees are hesitant to ask and compare their salaries with colleagues at work (beyond prohibitions sometimes guided by companies).

Building Suspense and Maximizing Surprises - Are you planning to spend the weekend binge-watching your favorite drama series or rewatching yesterday's football match? Are you ready to find out in advance what happens in the season finale? Or how the game ended in penalties? Do you really want to know what they bought you for your birthday, or would you prefer to stay surprised? [7].

Performance Improvement - It is commonly believed that exposing employees to information analyzing their task performance is a powerful and effective way to enhance performance. However, it has been shown that such feedback can divert attention from the task itself to the needs of the "self," draining the cognitive resources required for the task at hand [8].

Strategic Management - To what extent does deliberate ignorance help achieve a bargaining advantage in negotiations [9]? When both parties are interested in negotiating, the party choosing not to know what a reasonable solution is shifts the burden of avoiding a stalemate to the other side, the "informed" party, which will have to make concessions from which the "ignorant" side stands to benefit. Experimental negotiation studies have shown that negotiators can benefit from ignorance, and a non-trivial number of players will choose to remain ignorant as long as they can conceal their intention to do so [10].

Device for Self-Discipline - When your future preferences differ from those of the present [11]. For example, in relation to the consumption of a product that may incur future health costs. Non-smokers who believe that the risk of lung cancer from smoking is expected to be high may fear seeing lower estimates. These estimates may encourage them to smoke, change their behavior, and later regret it.

Avoidance of Responsibility - "Often, it's better not to know because if you knew, then you would have to act and stick your neck out" (Maslow, 1963). People can evade responsibility for their actions by avoiding information about the impact of the actions they take on others [12]. Sometimes, they may even be willing to pay to remain ignorant [13].

Fairness and Justice - A layer of ignorance can sometimes create conditions for building fairness and maintaining justice. For example, large orchestras have changed their audition policies to hide the identity of candidates while they are asked to perform behind a screen. This approach has increased the likelihood of success for women and raised the proportion of women in symphonic orchestras [14].

Cognitive Sustainability and Information Management - In a world full of stimuli, we are targets for "tasty stimuli" that capture our attention. Players like companies, advertisers, and policymakers compete for our most precious resource. In such a cultural environment, we have learned to choose between knowing one fact and being ignorant of other facts. This is a core skill. "It seems that the ability to ignore things will remain important throughout life, allowing for the preservation of the self-space against the onslaught of environmental stimuli" (Crawford, 2015) [15].

Did you read this far? You're curious, and when you decided to read, you made a decision that there's likely something important here for you—this post you chose to "know." Take a moment to think: when do you choose to remain "ignorant," and why does that happen? What personal benefits do you enjoy from that? In your personal life? At work? Who in your surroundings chooses not to know, and why? What role do you play in their choice? If you reflect on this deeply, you might be surprised by what you discover. So think carefully before deciding—do you really want to uncover and know? Feel free to like and share.

[1] Creighton, S., Almqvist, E. W., MacGregor, D., Fernandez, B., Hogg, H., Beis, J., . . . Hayden, M. R. (2003). Predictive, prenatal and diagnostic genetic testing for Huntington’s disease: The experience in Canada from 1987 to 2000. Clinical Genetics, 63, 462–475.

Yaniv, I., Benador, D., & Sagi, M. (2004). On not wanting to know and not wanting to inform others: Choices regarding predictive genetic testing. Risk, Decision and Policy, 9, 317–336.

[2] Hightow, L. B., Miller, W. C., Leone, P. A., Wohl, D., Smurzynski, M., & Kaplan, A. H. (2003). Failure to return for HIV posttest counseling in an STD clinic population. AIDS Education and Prevention, 15, 282–290.

[3] Jones, S. (2014). The media of testimony: Remembering the East German Stasi in the Berlin Republic. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

[4] Hage, V., & Thimm, K. (2010, August 16). Oralverkehr mit Vokalen [Oral sex with vowels]. Spiegel Online. Retrieved from http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/a-711869-4.html

[5] Hertwig R, Engel C. Homo Ignorans: Deliberately Choosing Not to Know. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2016 May;11(3):359-72.

[6] Howell, J. L., & Shepperd, J. A. (2013). Reducing health-information avoidance through contemplation. Psychological Science, 24, 1696–1703.

Yaniv, I., Benador, D., & Sagi, M. (2004). On not wanting to know and not wanting to inform others: Choices regarding predictive genetic testing. Risk, Decision and Policy, 9, 317–336.

[7] Ely, J., Frankel, A., & Kamenica, E. (2015). Suspense and surprise. Journal of Political Economy, 123, 215–260.

[8] Kluger, A. N., & DeNisi, A. (1996). The effects of feedback interventions on performance: Historical review, a metaanalysis and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 254–284.

[9] McAdams, D. (2012). Strategic ignorance in a second-price auction. Economics Letters, 114, 83–85.

[10] Conrads, J., & Irlenbusch, B. (2013). Strategic ignorance in ultimatum bargaining. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 92, 104–115.

[11] Carrillo, J. D., & Mariotti, T. (2000). Strategic ignorance as a selfdisciplining device. The Review of Economic Studies, 67, 529–544.

[12] Thunström, L., van’t Veld, K., F. Shogren, J. F., & Nordström, J. (2014). On strategic ignorance of environmental harm and social norms. Revue D’Economie Politique, 124, 195–214.

[13] Nyborg, K. (2011). I don’t want to hear about it: Rational ignorance among duty-oriented consumers. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 79, 263–274.

[14] Goldin, C., & Rouse, C. (2000). Orchestrating impartiality: The impact of “blind” auditions on female musicians. The American Economic Review, 90, 715–741.

[15] Crawford, M. B. (2015). The world beyond your head: On becoming an individual in an age of distraction. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Girouxץ